1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to medical devices. More specifically, the invention relates to an apparatus for filtering dental solid waste.
2. Background Art
When filings in teeth are replaced or removed, the composition of the filings is often a mixture of such materials as silver, mercury, copper, zinc, tin, palladium, etc. These materials, along with other solid or semi-solid debris, pose disposal problems for dental facilities since they may contain hazardous and possibly bio-hazardous material.
Such material is typically removed from the patient's mouth by a high volume evacuation (HVE) tip as shown in FIG. 1. The HVE tip 10 is attached to a tube 12 with a vacuum that draws both liquid and solid material from the patient's mouth. A first filtration canister 14 is located at the patient's chair to provide an initial filtration to remove solid debris. A second filtration trap 16 is located further along the line before the vacuum pump 18. After the vacuum pump, the filtered liquid in disposed in the sewer.
The filtration canister and the filtration trap are each periodically cleaned by hand. This typically involves removed the filtration screen from the canister or trap and cleaning off the filtered debris. This is an unpleasant, messy and potentially dangerous process since the person responsible for the cleaning is exposed to these materials. Additionally, the filtered materials such as mercury must be disposed of properly since they cannot simply be added to the sewer or trash.